Daylin Leach - Political Career - Feud With Philadelphia Inquirer

Feud With Philadelphia Inquirer

In August 2005, Daylin Leach published an op-ed article in the Philadelphia Inquirer blasting the paper's coverage of the 2005 Pennsylvania General Assembly pay raise controversy. In what the Philadelphia City Paper called "the paper's first round against Leach," Inquirer columnist John Grogan responded by accusing Leach of "funny math." In response, Leach "struck back" against the Inquirer with a satirical email to associates under the pseudonym "Dutch Larooo" skewering Inquirer reporter Mario F. Cattabiani.

On September 1, 2005, Mario F. Cattabiani published a front page article in the Philadelphia Inquirer that "exposed" Daylin Leach's long-standing and satirical blog "leachvent.com." The Philadelphia City Paper blasted the Inquirer for allowing Cattabiani to "answer his attacker" though a trumped-up news article, noting that "thousands of insiders have laughed at Leach's satire for years," but the Inquirer acted as though it had been "recently discovered." The Philadelphia City Paper noted that Cattabiani's article incorrectly characterized Leach's website as a "blog" rather than satire and had focused on Leach's pseudonym's "impure thoughts," while ignoring the "satirical attack" on his Cattabiani's reporting. The next day, Leach removed his website, allowing Cattabiani to "regurgitates the same spicy bits" in two subsequent front page stories. John Grogan jumped in declaring that Leach had "dug his own political grave." The Philadelphia City Paper criticized this fury of negative articles about Leach by noting that "hidden behind the newspaper's florid obsession with Leach's naughty bits, is the state rep's pointed satire of their mediocre coverage — a criticism that the newspaper never addresses...The Inquirer savaged this young legislator because his satire was hitting its mark: Them."

3. Marijuanna Policy

“For the past 75 years, our marijuana policy has been foolish, costly and destructive, and it must end". During the week of January 10th Daylin Leach proposed a bill in the Pennsylvania State Senate that would legalize marijuana consumption for those 21 years of age and older. "We have spent billions of dollars investigating, prosecuting, incarcerating and monitoring millions of our fellow citizens who have hurt no one, damaged no property, breached no peace. Their only ‘crime’ was smoking a plant which made them feel giddy." “People across our commonwealth have spent time in prison, lost time at work, been forced to hire lawyers and had their lives disrupted and sometimes destroyed because they used a product less dangerous than beer, less risky than children’s cough syrup, less addictive than chocolate and whose societal harm comes from its prohibition rather than its use.” "Indeed. Chances of legalization in a state without medical marijuana is improbable at this point, but every state has to start the discussion. And considering the large population of Pennsylvania, there are bound to be at least tens of thousands of people in desperate need of relief that only medical cannabis can provide." "Yet despite all of this, you can drink and smoke tobacco freely. But if you smoke marijuana, you are a criminal and can go to jail. This horrific policy must end. People around the nation are realizing that. And it is a moral imperative that Pennsylvania wake up and end prohibition now."